Dynamical systems theory as an organizing principle for single-cell biology

Abstract The emergence of single-cell transcriptomics has given us novel views of gene expression heterogeneity and cellular trajectories in development and disease at unprecedented resolution. However, an overarching theoretical framework to interpret single-cell gene expression data is lacking. He...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Samia Islam, Sudin Bhattacharya
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-08-01
Series:npj Systems Biology and Applications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41540-025-00565-3
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract The emergence of single-cell transcriptomics has given us novel views of gene expression heterogeneity and cellular trajectories in development and disease at unprecedented resolution. However, an overarching theoretical framework to interpret single-cell gene expression data is lacking. Here we argue that dynamical systems theory can provide an interpretable, causal, and quantitative perspective to understand and analyze these enormously rich data sets, in addition to yielding potential benefits for health care.
ISSN:2056-7189